1. Roving Death
Over the last week, agents of the federal government have killed two people on the streets of America. We should say their names: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo; Johan Sebastián Guerrero. These men were not armed. Araujo was in the country illegally, but was not the target of the operation that ended in his public execution. Guerrero was in the country legally when he was executed by agents of the state.
In America, we have become inured to incidents in which law enforcement kills civilians. The idea that LEOs can use deadly force at the drop of a hat is accepted by the general public.
But what the federal government has been doing to people assumed to be immigrants is different from normal police brutality. It is a targeted campaign. We are witnessing, for the first time since Jim Crow, American death squads.
I understand if that sounds like an exaggeration. But that’s only because we are inside the story and have become acclimated to the horror. When crimes against humanity start happening, the people on the inside are often the last to understand how horrific the situation is.
So let me tell you a story to help you understand how our situation looks to outsiders.
2. Story Corner
Once upon a time there was a democracy. It was a young country, but a reasonably sophisticated one. It was a constitutional republic, with separation of powers, the rule of law, the whole nine yards.
They were upwardly mobile and making economic strides. But they had problems, like every country. One of their problems was the drug trade.
A politician rose to power arguing that drugs were ruining the country. That drug dealers and drug users were destroying everything the people—the silent majority—held dear.
This politician came from a wealthy family but presented himself as a populist hero of the working class. He was unapologetic about his hatred of drug users. “I would be happy to slaughter them,” he told voters.
The New York Times, in a profile years later, would describe him this way:
[H]is draconian justice and coarse manner have earned him widespread condemnation. . . .
He has alienated many with outrageous comments and irrational behavior, yet remains wildly popular.
This politician ran for president and campaigned almost exclusively on the scourge of drugs. He had a policy prescription to deal with the problem: He would unshackle the police and turn them loose on the streets to deal with the drug problem while also encouraging civilian militias to do the same.